SMC sits on stray dog menace

Srinagar: Growing dog population in the summer capital has assumed horrendous dimensions with the Srinagar Municipal Corporation failing to check the menace.

People from various areas of Srinagar are concerned over the growing population of stray dogs. “It is ironic that even scores of stray dogs are present in Srinagar commercial hub Lal Chowk which is thronged by a large number of people including tourists. If this is the situation in the city centre, we can imagine the situation in other areas,” said Abdul Hamid, a pedestrian while pointing towards a pack of stray dogs near refurbished Ghanta Ghar.

Experts believe that unless a mass drive of sterilisation of dogs is initiated, the minimal surgeries to sterilise dogs will serve no purpose.

As per the recent data from the Anti-Rabies Clinic at SMHS Hospital, between April to October this year, Srinagar recorded 346 canine bite cases, which is the highest number across Kashmir.

While talking to Greater Kashmir, Dr. H U Malik, who has served the Animal Birth Control Unit at SKUAST Shuhama and looked over the sterilisation program, said that given the huge dog population in Srinagar and Shuhama being the only facility until a few months back, there is an acute need of a mass sterilisation programme.

He said a few dozen surgeries won’t work unless mass sterilisation is carried out under a special sterilisation drive. “There is a need to choose a time frame in which a mass sterilisation programme will be carried on to meet the required sterilisation demand in Srinagar. It will require better infrastructure and up-to-the-mark facilities. Outsourcing to an outside agency for a certain time period can also be an option. The concerned authorities can then take it over as the mass sterilisation of dogs is done because then only they can maintain the required need of sterilisation,” Malik said.

He also said that the mass-scale sterilisation program will be good when it is maintained and a good number of dogs are caught and operated on daily with no fluctuation.

Officials from the concerned departments said that until recently, Srinagar had only a capacity of around 10 dog sterilisations per day amid a population explosion of dogs.

“Even that facility at Shuhama used to be defunct as the winter arrived due to a lack of heating arrangements. When the capacity used to be few surgeries per day with a single doctor available, how was that supposed to help,” an official said.

The senior officials from Srinagar Municipal Corporation said that with the operation having started at Animal Birth Control and Anti Rabies Vaccination Centre Tengpora, there will be a major shift in the issue.

Dr Tawheed Ahmad, Municipal Veterinary Officer at Srinagar Municipal Corporation, said the department has started a major sterilisation drive in Srinagar. He said that a mass awareness program to make people aware of the drive has also started.

“Since the start of the Tengpora facility in June, we have sterilised around four thousand dogs across Srinagar. A major part of surgeries were done in the Tengpora facility. We are running the centers at full scale and aiming to perform 200 surgeries per day,” he said

He also said that a new facility to sterilise dogs is soon coming up at Chatraham Srinagar, which will enhance the operations. He said the department is aiming to perform 40 thousand surgeries in 18 months.